Pedro Costa is a Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 film director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

.
He is acclaimed for using his ascetic style to depict the marginalised people in desperate living situations. Many of his films are set in a district of Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

 inhabited by the socially disadvantaged

Disadvantaged

The "disadvantaged" is a generic term for individuals or groups of people who:* Face special problems such as physical or mental disability * Lack money or economic support....

 and shot in a natural and low-key way that makes them resemble documentaries.

Biography

While studying history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 at University of Lisbon, Costa switched to film courses at School of Theatre and Cinema

School of Theatre and Cinema

Located in Amadora, Portugal, the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, or ESTC , sometimes still referred to by its former designation Conservatório Nacional, is a public institution of higher education designed to function as the Portuguese National School of Theatre and Cinema.-History:ESTC was...

 (Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema). After working as an assistant director to several directors such as Jorge Silva Melo and João Botelho

João Botelho

João Botelho is a Portuguese film director.He has directed and written the screenplays of numerous films. His films have won several awards...

, he made a first feature film O Sangue

O Sangue

O Sangue is the Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa's first feature film. Released in 1989, in black and white, the film depicts the impoverished life of two brothers, Vicente and Nino, after their father passes away...

 (The Blood) in 1989.

He collected the France Culture Award (Foreign Cineaste of the Year) at 2002 Cannes Film Festival

2002 Cannes Film Festival

The 2002 Cannes Film Festival started on 15 May and ran until 26 May. The Palme d'Or went to the Polish-French-German-British co-produced film The Pianist directed by Roman Polanski.-Jury:* David Lynch * Sharon Stone* Michelle Yeoh...

 for directing the film No Quarto da Vanda (In Vanda's Room). Juventude em Marcha ("Youth on the March", known as Colossal Youth in Anglophone countries, and En avant, jeunesse ["Onward, Youth"] in Francophone countries) was selected for the 2006 Cannes Film Festival

2006 Cannes Film Festival

The 2006 Cannes Film Festival ran from May 17, 2006 to May 28, 2006. Twenty films from eleven countries were in competition for the Palme d'Or. The President of the Official Jury was Wong Kar-wai, the first Chinese director to preside over the jury....

 and earned the Independent/Experimental prize (Los Angeles Film Critics Association) in 2008.

Filmography

• O Sangue
  O Sangue
  O Sangue is the Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa's first feature film. Released in 1989, in black and white, the film depicts the impoverished life of two brothers, Vicente and Nino, after their father passes away...
  
   (Blood) (1989)
• Casa de lava (House of Lava) — aka "Down to Earth" (1995)
• Ossos
  Ossos
  Ossos is a 1997 Portuguese film directed by Pedro Costa.The film is set in "Estrela d'Africa", Fontainhas district of Lisbon, where disadvantaged dwellers and immigrants from former Portuguese colonies in Africa live desperate lives.The story's focus is on a young girl and her lover who become...
  
   (Bones) (1997)
• No Quarto da Vanda (In Vanda's Room) (2000)
• Danièle Huillet/Jean-Marie Straub: Où gît votre sourire enfoui? (Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub
  Jean-Marie Straub
  Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet were a duo of filmmakers who made two dozen films between 1963 and 2006...
  
  , Filmmakers - Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie?) (2001)
• Juventude em Marcha (Colossal Youth) (2006)
• Tarrafal
  Tarrafal
  Tarrafal is the name for some locations in Cape Verde:Towns and villages:*For the town in the island of Santiago, see Tarrafal, Cape Verde.*For the town in the island of São Nicolau, see Tarrafal de São Nicolau, Cape Verde....
  
  (2007)
• The Rabbit Hunters (2007)
• Ne change rien (Change Nothing) (2009)

External links

• Letters From Fontainhas: Three Films by Pedro Costa
• Pedro Costa, "A Closed Door That Leaves Us Guessing" - Transcript of three days of lectures by Costa on cinema, delivered in Tokyo in March 2004, Rouge
• Tag Gallagher, "Straub Anti-Straub"(Analysis of Costa's oeuvre and its interactions with the canon of Straub and Huillet), senses of cinema.com
• Kieron Corless, "Crossing the Threshold" (Interview with Costa before a London retrospective at Tate Modern), Sight & Sound
• Miguel Gomes, "Serenity" (on how Costa films with the inhabitants of Fontainhas in Lisbon), Sight & Sound
• Podcast with Pedro Costa (on the "Letters from Fontainhas" Criterion DVD set, 2010), GreenCine Daily
• Pedro Costa at Allmovie
• New York Times
• Literature on Pedro Costa
• A Digital Fugitive: An Interview with Pedro Costa, MUBI